Changing Approaches to Public Sector Reform in an Anglophone

UPRAVNA TEORIJA
983
Changing Approaches to Public Sector
Reform in an Anglophone Country:
The Australian Case in a Comparative
Perspective
John Halligan*
For Anglophone countries, the reform era featured bold
agendas that were comprehensive and systemic. The reputations of the central governments were based on managerialist and New Public Management (NPM) reforms that
other countries had difficulty in emulating. Three decades
on post-NPM agendas focused on countering the limitations of reforms driven by conviction and ideology, but sustaining the results of first generation reforms and defining
and implementing coherent new directions have proved to
be problematic. A new round of major reform inquiries has
now occurred in Anglophone countries in an international context of fiscal instability and complex environmental
pressures. How is a comprehensive reform managed under
these circumstances? There is also the question of how to
*
John Halligan, Professor of Public Administration at the ANZSOG Institute for
Governance, University of Canberra, Australia (profesor javne uprave na Institutu za javno
upravljanje, Sveučilište u Canberi, Australija, e-mail: John.Halligan@canberra.edu.au)
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
UDK
35.071.2(94)
Izvorni znanstveni rad / original scientific paper
Primljeno / received: 5. 10. 2011.
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frame and give meaning to expectations for a public service
system that is citizen-centric, horizontally aligned, governance focused and able to support central direction. Can
the existing platform be simply refined and extended or
is a paradigm change required? Without the right preconditions for reform, implementation becomes problematic.
The reform approach of Australia is examined with reference to the comparable reviews of New Zealand and the
United Kingdom.
Key words: public sector reform – Australia, managerialism,
New Public Management, post-NPM reforms, integrated
governance, reform generations
1. Introduction
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There are now three decades of experience of public sector reform in
OECD countries. This era of reform was distinguished by the fact that reform programs could be executed in practice. It was widely acknowledged
that a paradigm change occurred as traditional public administration was
replaced by public management in a range of countries. It has become
clear over the longer term that there have been significant issues with
realising reformers’ expectations over time and sustaining much of the
management reform agenda (Duncan and Chapman, 2010; Gill, 2011;
Halligan, 2011b). The details of how apparent success stories have lost
focus over time cannot be explored in detail here. Rather this paper examines a case where an attempt has been made to regain the initiative by
addressing the shortcomings and responding to new issues.
Analysis of public sector reform has focused on the content, rather less
attention being given to the management of reform processes (e.g. Pollitt
and Bouckaert, 2011). The exceptions include consideration of organisational change (as opposed to system-level reform), the politics of reform,
and pathways to reform. This is somewhat surprising given that the Achilles
heel of reform has often been the process: that is reform failure derived
from implementation problems (Caiden, 1969; March and Olsen, 1989).
A key question is whether the conditions that supported the more successful reforms in the past (judged in terms of capacity to implement rather
than normative judgements about the appropriateness of reforms) exist and
whether reform can be accomplished under a different set of conditions.
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In an era where so much attention is devoted to intractable problems
and the need for joined-up government, insufficient attention has been
given to the complexity of systems of organisations that constitute a public service, and system management within a reform context. The paper
identifies and analyses key process questions in reforming public sectors,
with particular attention to longitudinal and comparative perspectives on
the Anglophone system of Australia, with reference to New Zealand and
the United Kingdom.
2. Reforming Complex Public Service Systems
Three questions need clarification about managing the reform process:
the nature of reform at the system level, the character of reform, and the
leadership components of the reform process. A distinguishing feature
of the current era – that significant reform is implemented – has led to
a second feature, that the character of reform in many contexts is rather
different to that previously experienced. Of particular importance is that
reform is complex and comprehensive, consisting of multiple stages and
elements in programs conceived over time.
Much of the organisational literature is centred on change to a specific
agency, but where public service systems are under consideration, several
arenas of reform and a number of organisations of different types are
involved. If a reform is comprehensive, it implies both multi-agency and
multiple reforms. Comprehensive reform involves greater complexities
and is more likely to lead to garbage can processes (Brunsson and Olsen,
1993: 26). Further, in a multi-level public sector, there is the core public service within the central (or federal) government, the broader public
sector and possibly similar distinctions replicated at the regional level.
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Given the past success in adopting a new paradigm, the question arises
of how to address the current pressures on public sectors: improvements
to existing public management or of a new paradigm. The conduct of
the New Zealand 2011 reform process has been castigated for failing to
frame the reforms (Ryan, 2012). However, it has rarely been the case
that reformers have been explicit about presenting a reform framework of
paradigm-changing proportions in the sense of the 1988 proclamation in
New Zealand (Boston et al., 1996). More usually paradigm change, in so
far as it occurs, emerges over time. In the Australian case, this was a twostep process, first to management, then to markets.
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The national public sector may well be designated as the reform arena,
increasing the layers of complexity.
There are further challenges in analysing complex and lengthy reform processes. If the reform cycle is depicted in terms of a simple policy model,
we find that identifying the reform process may be difficult if it is not conveniently distinctive, clearly promulgated and implemented. In addition,
with reform programs that extend over time, more than one reform cycle
may be apparent.
2.1. Types of Reform Process
Administrative change has traditionally been recognised as a constant
feature of organisational environments, and has been regarded in terms
of adaptation to the environment. In the public sector, this has typically
involved the expansion of activities and the organisations that provide
them, and has normally been incremental, piecemeal and based on a department, ministry or another type of agency. There is a lack of coherent
and sustained strategy or direction in application and implementation.
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What is different in the reform era is the presence of at least three major
orders of reform. These involve both questions of scale and substance: the
magnitude of change is greater, but there is also a qualitative dimension
because the substance represents a fundamentally different way of doing
things. Two less extensive but nonetheless significant orders of reform
are specialised reform (significant reform types such as corporatisation or
decentralisation); and sectoral reform of a policy field (e.g. such as health)
or one major system component (e.g. local government or the outer public sector). By comprehensive reform is meant that a range of reforms are
introduced that affect most aspects of the functioning of a public service
or public sector or both. This large-scale reform will of course encompass
various specialised and sectoral reforms (Halligan, 2001).
These distinctions correspond also with organisation-centred categories
(Dunphy and Stace, 1990) involving forms of incremental (fine tuning,
incremental adjustment) and transformative (modular and corporate) approaches. Such categories may present some difficulties because of the
differences between a focused organisation and a multi-organisational
public sector, although a number of the private and public organisations
that are considered have the features of conglomerates.
Four types of reform can be distinguished. The first, system maintenance,
is the most basic and focuses on fine-tuning and reconditioning. Reform
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enhancement, the second type, is about introducing new instruments and
techniques. This includes giving impetus to reform agendas that need a
driver e.g. citizen engagement. The third type, system design and maintenance, addresses systemic coherence and balance in which there is systematic refurbishing of the components. This type is in the tradition of a
comprehensive review and provides a reform context in which systemic
fine-tuning and the introduction of new techniques can also occur. The
fourth, paradigm reform represents a fundamental form of change that
subsumes the others, and can be observed in the historic shift to new
public management.
Systemic
Comprehensive
1. Basic maintenance: ad hoc fine tuning of accepted
practices and instrument settings
–
–
2. Reform enhancement: New instruments &
techniques
x
–
3. System redesign & maintenance: Systematic
refurbishing & redesign
x
x
4. Framework (paradigm) change: Framework guiding
action, specifying goals & instruments
x
x
The fourth case may occur rapidly, as in the case of New Zealand, or by
steps over longer periods of time, as in the case of Australia. Many OECD
countries have not reformed comprehensively, generally falling into categories one and two (Halligan, 2001; cf. Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011). The
language of comprehensive reform may be there, but not the results.
2.2. Political Engagement
The conventional wisdom once regarded the lack of political support and
the failure of politicians to sustain their commitment to reform as key
factors in reform failure (March and Olsen, 1989). There is evidence that
major change requires the intervention of politicians, and that politicians
have been actively seeking to play a more active role in reform (Aucoin,
1990; Halligan and Power, 1992).
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Table 1: Types of reform
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The political executive can be the key factor in the success of major reform, at least at certain strategic points in the reform process. The reasons for this are obvious: fundamental change means new approaches,
and leadership, and the existing senior public service is unlikely to support
change of this order if it undermines their positions and values. Contrariwise, where governments are divided and reliant on special interests
for support, or on lack of tenure in office, they face greater obstacles to
achieving change. The non-implementation of Australian proposals in the
1970s was attributed to the neglect of political factors. The enhancement
of the political executive’s power resulted in a set of political mechanisms
for influencing and directing the public service. Australia continued to
rely heavily on tight political control to sustain reform, whereas New Zealand resorted to the principles of its well-known model as the basis for
driving reform (Halligan, 2001; Boston et al., 1996).
3. Reform Models in Australia
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An interest in the long-term fate of major reform programmes leads to
a consideration of reform generations. The term generation can denote
countries that are considered first generation new public management
reformers (i.e. the 1980s) in contrast to latecomers. It also applies to systems that have sustained reform sufficiently long for several generations
to be evident, hence the reference here to the third generation reformer.
Generations reflect distinct phases in extended reform programmes in
which the overall tenor is significantly modified. There are different ways
of characterising generations, for example a sequence of phases with a
distinctive leitmotiv (e.g. management, market and governance).
The Australian experience can be summarised with reference to three
models of reform each associated with a generation and coinciding with
the decades 1980s–2000s. Managerialism best reflects the first phase in
which management became the central concept and reshaped thinking.
This was succeeded by a phase that for a time came close to the mainstream depiction of new public management (Hood, 1991), in which the
market element was favoured and features such as disaggregation, privatisation and a private sector focus were at the forefront. In turn, NPM was
followed, although not displaced, in the 2000s by integrated governance
(Halligan, 2006; 2007).
The initial period of reform displaced traditional administration with a
package of reforms based on management. Over about a decade, a new
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management philosophy was developed and implemented which replaced
the emphasis on inputs and processes with one on results. Unlike New
Zealand’s theoretically driven approach, the management framework was
evolved pragmatically (Halligan and Power, 1992; TFMI, 1993).
The integrated governance model had several dimensions, each embodying a relationship and reflecting several themes: delivery and implementation, coherence and whole-of-government, and performance
and responsiveness to government policy. The four dimensions draw
together fundamental aspects of governance: resurrection of the central
agency as a major actor with more direct influence over departments;
whole-of-government as the new expression of a range of forms of coordination; central monitoring of agency implementation and delivery; and
departmentalisation through absorbing statutory authorities and rationalising the non-departmental sector. In combination, these provide the
basis for integrated governance. These trends increased the focus on the
horizontal by emphasising cross-agency programmes and collaborative
relationships. At the same time, vertical relationships were extended and
received reinforcement. There was also a centralising element in that
central agencies were driving policy directions systemically and across
several agencies. The result was a tempering of devolution through strategic steering and management from the centre and a rebalancing of the
positions of centre and line agencies.
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The first phase displayed incipient NPM features in several respects, but
the dominant theme was management improvement. The commitment
to neo-liberal reforms in the 1990s led to the public service becoming
highly decentralised, marketised, contractualised and privatised. The new
agenda centred on competition and the contestability of service delivery, contracting out, client focus, core business, and the application of
the purchaser/provider principle. The agenda also covered a deregulated
personnel system; a core public service focused on policy, regulation and
oversight of service delivery; and greater use of the private sector. A new
financial management framework was introduced that included budgeting on a full accrual basis, implementation of outputs and outcomes reporting, and extending agency devolution to budget estimates and financial management. The devolution of responsibilities from central agencies
to line departments and agencies was highly significant with a diminished
role for central agencies being one consequence (Halligan, 2007).
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4. A New Phase and Reform Agenda
Unlike the previous three phases, the 2010s have been characterised by
greater environmental instability as government shave contended with
high fiscal stress. The Australian reform process on government administration was unusual in that it occurred amidst the international crisis,
but was not essentially a product of it (for details of the process see the
analysis by Lindquist, 2010).
Australia’s report Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for the Reform of Australian
Government Administration (AGRAGA, 2010) represented an exception
as well as continuity. It posed as a case of comprehensive reform even
though many of the constituent elements were not inherently significant.
In terms of the reform era, it was unusual in that an extensive document
was produced to channel reform (the precedent was the more formal inquiry and report of the Coombs Royal Commission of 1976).
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The Australian report was the first of three produced by Anglophone
countries. New Zealand’s Better Public Services report followed a year
later (BPSAG, 2011), and belatedly the United Kingdom’s Civil Service
Reform Plan (HM Government, 2012) appeared. The contexts of the
three countries differ substantially. The impact of the fiscal crisis on the
Australian public sector has been less than for other OECD countries.
Nevertheless, it was highly significant for the budget: a large federal surplus was converted into a sizeable deficit, and cuts in workforces were
prevalent within the federation. At the national level, the consequences
for dimensions of governance (central steering, leadership and capacity)
and the evolution of public management were potentially more far-reaching. The reform agenda in particular was subjected to significant cuts.
The United Kingdom in contrast has experienced horrific cuts in central
government expenditure, and the main imperative has remained how to
address this in the short and medium term. New Zealand falls in between
the two. The official position is that ‘although New Zealand entered the
global economic downturn with a stronger financial position than most
OECD countries and has weathered the storm better than many, we face
essentially the same imperatives for fiscal consolidation, service realignment, and an economic recovery.’ (BPSAG, 2011: 5).
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4.1. Explaining the Reform Agenda
Why does Australia have an explicit and full-fledged reform process?
Leaving aside Australian state governments and territories that had been
running reform agendas in recent years, there appeared to be nothing
comparable internationally. Yet Australia was far less constrained by the
fall-out from the financial and economic crisis, and was not driven by the
need to cut the public service heavily.
The specific diagnosis suggested lack of capacity and accountability, a
series of deficits (e.g. a shortfall in capability), a lack of high performance,
and creeping bureaucratisation and compliance issues (termed ‘red tape’)
(Rudd, 2009; AGRAGA, 2009; 2010).
In contrast, the UK Civil Service Reform Plan was produced in a context
that was overshadowed by fiscal stress, and which had already led to a radical reform program centred on savage cuts to department budgets. The
‘scale of the challenges and persistent weaknesses’ were said to justify a formal reform plan (HM Government, 2012: 7). New Zealand’s Better Public
Service report was a response to the demands from the economic environment, although much less affected by a budget deficit than the UK, and the
need to improve the quality of its services despite being ranked as one of
the best performing systems internationally (BPSAG, 2011: 2, 5).
1
For details, see Edwards et al., 2012. A further factor was the role of the review’s
its chair, Terry Moran, who spent his early career in a Commonwealth central agency, and
later ran the Victorian state government’s Premier’s Department before becoming secretary
of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. He had a strong mandate, and an understanding of how to manage a large and complex public sector, the systemic requirements
and the interplay between elements.
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One interpretation is that a party out of power for eleven years wished to
launch a reform agenda in order to differentiate itself from the previous
regime, yet the government was already undertaking a range of reforms
(Halligan, 2010a). Of direct relevance were the expectations of an activist
government, and in particular a prime minister with a highly ambitious policy and reform agenda. The expansive programme was already making demands on the public service that exceeded capacity and exposed implementation weaknesses.1 With the government’s extended agenda of change, the
official view was that there were significant capability weaknesses and a lack
of coherent direction for the public service sufficient to justify the appointment of an Advisory Group. According to the Prime Minister, ‘the next
stage of renewal of the APS requires more than just piecemeal change. We
need a more sweeping reform driven by a long-range blueprint for a world
class, 21st century public service’ (Rudd, 2009: 12; Halligan, 2010a).
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4.2. Character of the Reform Agenda
Two features define much of the character of the reports: the coherence
and focus of the narrative and the mode of implementation. The Australian review picked up a number of matters already the subject of discussion,
debate and reports. The Blueprint report covered 28 recommendations
in nine reform areas organised under four themes: citizen needs; leadership and strategic direction; capability; efficiency and high standards. The
catalogue of items compiled in the report included efficiency dividends,
revising APS values, reducing red tape, the roles of secretaries, including
stewardship as a response to short-termism, weaknesses in policy making,
and the consequences of different conditions of employment for joint activity (Appendix 1) (AGRAGA, 2010).
There were a number of ideas that were new to the Australian public service, but based on practice elsewhere. The question of relating to citizen
engagement had been around for some time (Briggs, 2009), but conducting satisfaction surveys was borrowed from Canada and New Zealand.
The UK capability reviews were adopted for departments, but the concept
was being substantially adapted to Australian needs. By its nature, this
was not an exercise that had the potential to yet generate innovations that
would rank internationally,2 which is not to say that innovation might not
emerge in the implementation process.
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Taking a comparative perspective, the main themes that emerge from the
three reports are services for citizens, capabilities, and collaborative activity.
This assumes that the prominent theme of leadership is integral to capability. Improved policy can also fit under capabilities, but is somewhat broader.
The New Zealand document, with the benefit of the earlier Australian
report, presented a more sustained narrative and displayed greater coherence through its treatment of and focus on the main themes: better
results; better services and more value for money; and stronger leadership,
the right culture and capability (BPSAG, 2011). Whereas in Australia, the
lack of a distinctive and unifying core issue or theme added to the mixed
acceptance of the reform agenda overall within and beyond the public
service. Without an ‘urgent, politically »hot« reform trigger, the Moran
group clearly found it difficult to weave a coherent narrative that holds the
disparate activity clusters together.’ (‘t Hart, 2010).
2
Compare the earlier innovation of Centrelink, which was originally hailed internationally as a one-stop, multi-purpose delivery agency for providing services to several purchasing departments, and for seeking customer-focused delivery that provided integrated
services (Halligan, 2008).
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4.3. Back at the Reform Frontier
There are clear comparisons to be made between the situation now and
that of the 1980s when the shift from administration to management was
underway (Halligan and Power, 1992). A different model has emerged
during each of the last three decades reflecting the tone and content of
the then reform agenda: the concept of managerialism in the 1980s, new
public management in the 1990s and integrated governance in the 2000s.
International trends suggest that collaborative governance within government, but with an increasingly society-centric focus, provides a benchmark, if hazy, for official aspirations for public governance in the 2010s.
The key question is to what extent this can be properly reflected in a formal agenda. Ahead of the Game gives the idea of collaborative governance
a possible foundation in public governance. At the very least, collaborative governance requires wider societal accountability, shared intra- and
inter-governmental governance accountabilities, and participatory governance (Edwards et al., 2012). Specific areas given prominence in the
Blueprint were citizen engagement, joined-up government, shared outcomes, and more generally accomplishing and sustaining cultural change
(AGRAGA, 2010). In combination, they had the potential to re-define
much of public governance as it was currently understood, but a great
deal remained to be spelt out and institutionalised.
However, an ironclad rule of reform is that it is extremely difficult to introduce a significant new instrument or approach where it is in conflict
with the dominant paradigm. Consequently, public servants responsible
for introducing shared outcomes have been focusing on how they can be
accommodated within existing processes, and forcing them to fit within
the parameters unsympathetic to the concept of sharing. For citizen engagement, a number of agencies have embarked on pilots, but there is no
coherent approach beyond moving towards a survey of citizens’ attitudes.
Horizontal management and joined-up government is a theme that permeates the Blueprint for reform report, but there has yet to be an overall
strategy articulated or high-profile leadership on this question. This was
given priority by the last head of the public service, Peter Shergold, but
was not sustained in the medium term.
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The limits of reform can be seen in the several significant departures from
current practices envisaged by the Blueprint, which are difficult to contemplate by public servants inured to standard bureaucratic procedures
and departmental programmes. The Australian public service essentially
provides the machinery for a state-centric system of government.
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The ultimate aim of the Blueprint for reform was cultural change presented as a culmination and enveloping product of the reform process (Moran, 2010). The question of sustaining cultural change, long an Achilles
heel of reform, depends on whether the rigidities of an existing system can
be breached or bridged by tangible requirements that affect behaviour.
This suggests that for the agenda to be successful something of a paradigm change would be required, despite the absence of the conditions
that supported the more successful reforms in the past.
Old agendas have resurfaced whether from neglect or changing circumstances. Australia and New Zealand have reassessed how to handle respectively the financial management and results foci of the 1980s. The
United Kingdom echoes agendas from the Thatcher years of the early
1980s in terms of both cutbacks and coming to terms with the role and accountability of the senior civil service. The general focus on service delivery and citizens reflects the 1990s, while the integration wave of the 2000s
receives a new impetus. Nevertheless, the current emphasis on capability
and leadership is far more adamant and sustained. The centrality given to
collaborative and cross-system solutions is striking.
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However, the recommendations are mostly ‘single-loop learning: technical, managerial solutions to soft spots in the machinery of government.
What the review does not do much is to lay down truly ‘double-loop’
learning ambitions; that is, fundamentally re-examining and redesigning
some of the key underlying assumptions, values and design principles that
underpin the current Australian public service system’ (‘t Hart, 2010).
Similar types of observation were made of the New Zealand agenda for
giving insufficient attention to framing the reforms and for mechanistic
managerial prescriptions (Ryan, 2012; Jackson and Jones, 2012).
4.4. Conditions for Implementation
What was original about the Australian review was the exercise itself, in
both the conception of comprehensive design and maintenance and the
execution. The Blueprint provided a prolegomena to an extended reform
process managed by the public service. There was a rolling agenda for
change with a large range of elements that encompassed many players (in
particular, two leadership groups, a new Secretaries’ Board and APS 200,
a senior leadership forum for supporting the secretaries). Similarly, the
New Zealand report was represented as ‘the starting point for an ongoing
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programme of reform’ (BPSAG, 2011: 3). The UK projections for cutbacks and associated reforms extend to at least the mid-2010s.
In Australia’s case, implementation was divided between the three key
central agencies: the Department of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, the Department of Finance and Deregulation and the Public Service
Commission with the last being assigned a more prominent role. In New
Zealand, the State Services Commission has overall responsibility. It appears that the modestly resourced Cabinet Office has the lead role in the
United Kingdom.
The implementation of comprehensive reform is contingent on particular
conditions being in place. Based on earlier experience there must be high
and sustained commitment from the political leadership even if it does
not actively manage the process (Halligan and Power, 1992). The public
service leadership must be both equipped to handle a large reform agenda
and believe in it as a whole. Clear imperatives for reform must exist, either
in the environment or because of internal dysfunctions, and be reflected
in a thematic core of issues that can be readily communicated and provide focus. The combination of these factors is what makes the difference
between success and failure.
With the displacement of the Prime Minister Rudd by his own party in
2010, the implementation process in Australia was disrupted. The Australian Public Service Commission’s powers had been augmented by government endorsement of the Blueprint, and it became the lead agency for
around half the Blueprint’s recommendations. The new Prime Minister
Gillard subsequently cut this funding heavily when projecting fiscal rectitude in the election campaign. The Prime Minister’s apparent lack of
interest in the reform agenda was subsequently reaffirmed by the inattention given to it in the Institute of Public Administration Australia’s Garran
Oration (Gillard, 2011). As the chief adviser to the prime minister (and
head of the public service) has reaffirmed, the role of the Department of
Prime Minister and Cabinet has been shaped by the prime ministerial
styles and preferences (Watt, 2012: 2).
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The NZ agenda is the most ambitious in seeking collaborative and horizontal refocusing across the public service as part of the better results
agenda. The complexities with elaborate change management processes
and multiple implementation strategies are substantial. The supporting
documents for the review indicated thinking that regarded ‘the design and
implementation of these reforms as merely complicated, not as complex’
(Eppel and Wolf, 2012: 43; Ryan, 2012).
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5. Conclusion
This article has examined the comprehensive reform program of Australia
under the environmental conditions of the 2010s. Australia had considerable success with sustaining reform over three decades, yet has faltered
when it came to designing and implementing comprehensive reform for
a governance era (cf. the Canadian case: Dutil et al., 2010). The global
financial crisis complicated the process by producing resource constraints
and diversions. The case shows that when the conditions that had facilitated implementation in previous phases of reform were not present, the
reform agenda became vulnerable.
The Australian case has been located within a comparative perspective of
two other Anglophone countries, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
There was considerable common ground with the core themes for reform centred on improved services and results, collaborative governance,
and capability and leadership. As governments attempt to move beyond
state-centric modes of operation, the need for an active system design
and governance approach intensifies because the conventional wisdom of
machine bureaucracy is much less applicable. Future assessments of the
medium term implementation of the reforms will be able to clarify whether the foundations for a new paradigm have been laid.
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Appendix 1 Nine Reform Areas and Selected Recommendations in the
Blueprint
A HIGH PERFORMING PUBLIC SERVICE
1. Delivering
better services for clients
Simplify
Australian
Government
services for
citizens
Develop
better ways
to deliver services through
community
and private
sectors
Deliver services in closer
partnership
with State
and local
governments
2. Creating
more open
government
Enable citizens to collaborate with
government
in policy
and service
design
Provides strong
leadership and strategic
direction
3. Enhancing policy
capability
Strengthen strategic
policy
Improve policy implementation
4. Reinvigorating strategic leadership
Contains a highly
capable workforce
6. Clarifying
and aligning
employment
conditions
Ensure employment bargaining
arrangements
support one APS
Revise and embed the
APS Values
Assess the size
and role of the
SES
Articulate the roles
and responsibilities of
Secretaries
7. Strengthening
the workforce
Revise employment
arrangements for Secretaries
Strengthen leadership
across the APS
Improve talent management across the APS
5. Introducing a new
APSC to drive change
and provide strategic
planning
Conduct a
citizen survey
Source: AGRAGA, 2010
Operates efficiently
and at a consistently
high standard
8. Ensuring agency
agility, capability
and effectiveness
Conduct agency
capability reviews Introduce shared
outcomes across
portfolios
Reduce internal red
tape to promote
agility
9. Improving agency
efficiency
Coordinate
workforce planning
Review the measures of agency
efficiency
Streamline
recruitment and
improve induction
Strengthen the governance framework
Expand and
strengthen
learning and
development
Strengthen the
performance
framework
Encourage
employees to expand their career
experience
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Meets the
needs of
citizens
1000
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CHANGING APPROACHES TO PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM
IN AN ANGLOPHONE COUNTRY:
THE AUSTRALIAN CASE IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
Summary
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
For Anglophone countries, the reform era featured bold agendas that were comprehensive and systemic. The reputations of the central governments were based
on managerialist and New Public Management (NPM) reforms that other
countries had difficulty in emulating. Three decades on post-NPM agendas focused on countering the limitations of reforms driven by conviction and ideology,
but sustaining the results of first generation reforms and defining and implementing coherent new directions have proved to be problematic. A new round of
major reform inquiries has now occurred in Anglophone countries in an international context of fiscal instability and complex environmental pressures. How is
a comprehensive reform managed under these circumstances? There is also the
question of how to frame and give meaning to expectations for a public service
system that is citizen-centric, horizontally aligned, governance focused and able
to support central direction. Can the existing platform be simply refined and
extended or is a paradigm change required? Without the right preconditions for
reform, implementation becomes problematic. The reform approach of Australia
is examined with reference to the comparable reviews of New Zealand and the
United Kingdom.
Key words: public sector reform – Australia, managerialism, New Public Management, post-NPM reforms, integrated governance, reform generations
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1001
PROMJENA PRISTUPA REFORMI JAVNOG SEKTORA
U JEDNOJ OD ZEMALJA ENGLESKOG GOVORNOG PODRUČJA:
SLUČAJ AUSTRALIJE U KOMPARATIVNOJ PERSPEKTIVI
U zemljama engleskog govornog područja razdoblje reformi karakteristično je
po smionim, sveobuhvatnim sistemskim programima. Vlade tih zemalja temeljile
su svoju reputaciju na menadžerskim reformama i novom javnom menadžmentu
(NJM) koje su druge države dosta teško oponašale. Tri desetljeća kasnije, reformski programi nakon novog javnog menadžmenta usredotočili su se na neutraliziranje ograničenja koje su nametnule reforme pokretane uvjerenjima i ideologijom, ali se ustrajanje na rezultatima prve generacije reformi kao i definiranje i
primjenjivanje novih koherentnih smjernica pokazalo problematičnim. Novi se
krug velikih reformskih poteza pojavio u zemljama engleskog govornog područja
u međunarodnom kontekstu fiskalne nestabilnosti i složenih pritisaka okoline.
Kako upravljati složenom reformom u takvim okolnostima? Tu je i pitanje kako
uokviriti i dati značenje očekivanjima da se dobije sustav javne uprave koji je
orijentiran prema građanima, horizontalno povezan, usmjeren na javno upravljanje i sposoban odgovoriti na zahtjeve središnje vlasti. Može li se postojeća
platforma jednostavno dotjerati i proširiti ili je potrebna promjena paradigme?
Bez pravih preduvjeta za reformu, njezina primjena postaje problematična. U
radu se razmatra reformski pristup Australije u komparaciji s onima Novog
Zelanda i Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva.
Ključne riječi: reforma javnog sektora – Australija, menadžerizam, novi javni
menadžment, reforme nakon novog javnog menadžmenta, integrirano upravljanje, generacije reformi
CROATIAN AND COMPARATIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
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